Diana talks to the inimitable Poppet

Hi Poppet. I am thrilled that you agreed to talk to me....

I am sure that you are tired of being asked the usual questions that would be interviewers ask authors, so hopefully this interview is an interview with a difference and I have come up with some unusual questions!
First things first I am sure there is a question that you have always longed to be asked. Now is the chance. Ask your own question and answer it!
The answer is cake (lol)
What is the genre you are best known for?
Dark / horror romance

If your latest book Sinnergog Part 1 was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role? 

''I love that cover, it embodies: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil''
PS: Most folks 'miss that' subtlety

That's a great question. It's a sad and brutal tale which follows from childhood to adulthood. I can't even imagine making a child act any of those scenes, but I suppose the adult Christopher could be played by someone trendy and popular. Honestly I have no clue because that's not my area of expertise. I'll leave the casting to the professionals who know what they're doing.

What made you choose this genre?
Another good question. No one has ever asked me that before. If I answer honestly I'll offend a lot of people.
I chose this genre not deliberately, but I wrote the first book to make a point. I wrote this series in its entirety to highlight how mankind has twisted scripture to suit his own agenda (this is especially prevalent in politics these days too) – and also because when I read the Old Testament (and even some of the new, Saul-Paul's work especially), I am horrified by what 'God' sanctions and condones. He tells his people to murder, to kidnap virgins for themselves (Judges 21:21 /Lamentations 5:11 / Numbers 31:9, he makes the people of Israel buy back their newborn children from the Levite priests (Numbers 18:15), he sanctions stoning to death sinners, he has a moment where he makes them sacrifice their newborns 'to prove that he is God'*, he tells them to wage war and commit murder (despite that breaking one of the 10 commandments) – and when I read that I know it's no God I could possibly respect. Most folks gloss over the nasty stuff, they don't want to look at it that hard, they simply follow this ritual and religion because they were raised believing that to do otherwise would utterly condemn them. I wrote this series to show the reader what I would see if we met God in the flesh, if we knew this guy face to face and listened to his orders, and put under the microscope his cruelty and capriciousness. The series has moments of redemption, but alas like most brainwashed generations the damage done to young and innocent children shatters the psyche early on, leaving us alone in a world with broken and dangerous people. (On this matter I've written a non-fiction novel highlighting the issues I have with this religious text as a guideline for humanity to follow – and we wonder why we don't have peace on Earth. That novel is titled The Nephilim Cartel.)
***Then I gave them laws that are not good and commands that do not bring life. I let them defile themselves with their own offerings and I let them sacrifice their first born sons. This was to punish them and show them that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 20:25.
The Douay Reims bible says; in that they caused to pass through the fire all the firstborn, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know, understand, and realise that I am the Lord.
The share of the community was the same as that for the soldiers: 337,500 sheep and goats, 36,000 cattle, 30,500 donkeys, and 16,000 virgins. From this share Moses took one out of every fifty prisoners and animals, and as the Lord had commanded, gave them to the Levites who were in charge of the Lord's Tent. Numbers 31:41
And watch; if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and catch every man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. (Judges 21:21)
How do you get ideas for plots and characters?
With the Darkroom Saga (series) my experience with religious zealots was all the inspiration required, my other works are mostly inspired by dreams.

Favourite picture or work of art?
The Sistine Chapel

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?
Yes, and yes. I am planning to write a dystopian and futuristic novel, with huge metaphysical and sci-fi overtones. However, this novel will be written under a mystery pseudonym so my readers won't even know I wrote it. My publisher already knows about it though

Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously.
I like that you choose to use the words 'writing seriously'. I started writing seriously in my early 20s, and was published in magazines by the time I was 25. I spent 6 years doing that before turning to fiction full time (but by that time I had written a series of over 1000000 words.) I wanted to be an author from the age of 12, and wrote my first novel when I was 14. So definitely a conscious decision. But, the publishing world has changed a lot since I was 12, it's now excessively competitive and very easily influenced by bloggers and public opinion.

Marmite? Love it or hate it?
LOVE it!

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??
I make a playlist for each novel and listen to it on repeat (with headphones on) for the entirety of it being written.

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters?
The muse whips me hard I am her servant.

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?
Acting, or archeology.

Coffee or tea? Red or white?
Coffee, red.

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way?
It depends on the book. Some novels I know completely from start to finish before writing the first word.
If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?
I'm really not fussy about fonts. I just follow the rules (cue eye roll).

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?
The Key of Solomon – (there's a version online which is clearly falsely translated) – or the grimoire belonging to Honorius of Thebes (or even the original Book of Jubilees, or that "new" bible discovered written in gold, which is completely different to the one considered 'god's word' today.) I also wouldn't mind getting to read in one cohesive document everything ever written by Leonardo Da Vinci.

(As an aside, Diana learned Classical Greek and Latin in order to read the earliest known version of the Septuagint for herself, rather than relying on translation...)

A late aside from Poppet: In fact to add to that one question, I'd love to read everything ever written by Nikola Tesla too..

Have any of your characters ever shocked you and gone off on their own adventure leaving you scratching your head??? If so how did you cope with that!?
This does happen sometimes. Usually it's female characters behaving like feeble nitwits. I'm an alpha female who doesn't condone victim mentality. I just write it as fast as I can so the plot can get back to business.

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips?
I do a ton of research. My life feels dedicated to research (I write a lot of nonfiction), but alas my budget means all research is done via books especially ordered in for me because they're never in stock, or via the internet. If I place a character or plot in a place I've never been, I even drive around the neighbourhood using Google maps plotting routes and noting shops along the way to give credence to the setting.

Fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?
No, I let it unfold as it should. If one character suddenly becomes domineering, I go with it.

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?
The story has to be credible, life does not. So often life happens, and I say to hubby, if I wrote this no one would ever believe it and I'd get 1 stars for cruddy writing. I keep it credible using logic or physics to explain that which seems supernatural. Supernatural however is a matter of opinion. If we can transmit photons across space now, imagine what is 'possible in real life' in the future. I think everything is possible, it's simply our limited understanding (currently) that makes the possible seem 'far fetched'. Perception is everything.

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?
Lol, I find this question ambiguous. I don't believe that fact and fiction can become blurred. I know the facts, and I interject them into fiction as part of the plot.
Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?
I love them all. Some characters I do not like, yet even in their madness I have empathy for them.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?
Nonfiction mostly.
What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?
Ummm. Holy water? (lol)
Last but not least... favourite author?
I have a lot of favourites, this isn't a cut and dried question for me. I love to cook, and Nigella Lawson is my favourite foodie author. My favourite health food author is Dr Andrew Weil. I love Charles de Lint, for being the first urban fantasy author I read. I love Tolkien and Rowling for the alternative realities they presented. I love George Orwell, Charles Dickens, and William Golding, for showing the basest sides of humanity and highlighting what we needed to acknowledge. But then I also love authors like Helen Fielding for giving me a good laugh. Mostly now I support indie authors. They need champions in their corner, and indie publishers, because these folks are changing the future, making dreams possible for everyone. However I also love a good metaphysical read and I absolutely love James Redfield, and Deepak Chopra. I also love the action classic authors, like Eric Van Lustbader, Desmond Bagley, Ian Fleming, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King.
Thank you Diana, this was definitely different. I apologise for not being more mainstream and making this a quick and easy Q and A  Poppet, I am delighted to have such an exciting and informative talk about such a range of subjects. Thank you.

About Sinnergog: Part 1 (Darkroom Saga Book 6)

Part I
Sacrifice wears many masks. In the claustrophobic walls of the Sinnergog untold horrors splatter the walls. It was created as a sanctuary for those possessed by Satan, the last refuge for exorcism and redemption. Named after a temple to worship god, the only thing worshiped here is trauma.

Christopher Ward: It occurred to me that the manifestation of God among mankind was unique in itself. Did He know he was god? Was he always different? Is that why I was persecuted, because Satan never rests and temptation is a rope bridge across the character chasm?

It took me years to understand I am the chosen one, and it is my legacy, my only purpose, to rid this world of evil. I’ve come for the lost, for the sinners. A reaper is not death, it is mercy, it is love, it is compassion. So I taught my firstborn son to show mercy, I taught him to give sinners a chance to repent, I taught him that Eve can’t help herself. If it’s forbidden the female will crave it, and she’ll drag good men down with her into her cesspit of cunning evil. Me and my kind stand between her and good men. We are the intervention, we are divinity and nothing can stop this. Satan has no power here, I am all powerful.

Part II
Victor Ward: knows his father, the Alpha who becomes god, who is so narcissistic and deranged he cannot tell fiction from fantasy - must be stopped. Victor spent his life in service to his father’s cult, but now the veil has lifted from his sight and he knows good from evil, he knows his father is the biggest crime lord of our time, and yet Christopher cannot recognize that he is the personification of the very thing he claims to thwart.

There is only one man who can stop god. His son. Will he die for our sins? Will they follow the script? Or will Victor become the Lucifer of our time? Victor is ostracised from his Eden, and it’s time for payback. The hunt is on. Their egos have grown, they know how to make bodies disappear, they know how to enslave the powerful with drugs and blackmail, and this time the massacre will not end until the father and the son become one, or one destroys the other.

Once, Christ threw men out of the temple, because they desecrated it. Now Victor must exorcise Christ from the temple, because now Christ-opher is the one who destroys all that is holy.

This is the final installment in the Darkroom Saga. Now we learn the origins of pain, and how it perpetrates the legacy for seven generations.

About Poppet:

International bestselling author, Poppet writes romantic horror, romantic comedy, non-fiction, paranormal romance, and is currently published with Wild Wolf Publishing, Tirgearr Publishing, and Eibonvale Press.

Poppet was first published in Mobius Poetry Magazine, and then spent years writing natural health articles for The SA Journal of Natural Medicine and Renaissance Magazine, before turning her attention to writing fiction, seeing her reach the number 1 spot on Authonomy - run by Harper Collins. Interviewed by journalist David Kentner, Poppet gained exposure across North America with the release of her debut novel Darkroom. Previously published by Night Publishing, Endaxi Press, and Thorstruck Press, Poppet now has more than 50 titles to her credit.

Poppet turned to writing full time after becoming paralysed by Guillian Barré Syndrome. She still takes one day at a time, living a life where joy and peace are her main focus, leaving drama for her novels only.

You can follow Poppet here ...

© Diana Milne January 2017 © (Poppet, August 2017)

Diana talks to Marius Gabriel

Hi Marius, it is lovely to have a chance to chat with you like this!!
First things first I am sure there is a question that you have always longed to be asked. Now is the chance. Ask your own question and answer it!

Q: Is it awfully hard being a dazzling genius?
A: Oh no, I take it in my stride. (Lolololol!!!)

If your latest book TAKE ME TO YOUR HEART AGAIN was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?
A: Well, there are three lead parts, and I’d have Anna Maxwell Martin, Rachael Stirling and Sophie Rundle!  (Nice one effendi! I can picture them all in the roles)

(Click here to access Diana's review of this splendid book!)



What made you choose this genre?
A: I am very interested in the period (1930s to 1950s)

How do you get ideas for plots and characters?
A: All three characters are modelled on my mum. (That is really interesting! What a wonderfully complex character she must have been!)If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?
A: Oh, without a doubt I’d write a mind-bending Science Fiction novel. I love SciFi. And no, I don’t have a plot cos I’m rubbish at writing SciFi.
Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously.
A: I was about twelve. I never really wanted to do anything else, though I valiantly had a go at lecturing and Law. (Gosh!!)

Marmite? Love it or hate it?
A: Love Bovril, does that help? (Mmmmmm. Me too!)

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters?
A: I don’t trust you not to betray me. (Wise man!!)


Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?
A: Pope. (What I said before. That!)

Coffee or tea? Red or white?
A: Coffee. Red.

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way?
A: I have not so much a full draft as a skeleton outline. I know what major story points I want to reach, but the episodes in between unfold day by day.

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?
A: Times New Roman. Funnily enough. (Ditto. But I won't tell my alter ego that!)

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?
A: One of Shakespeare’s original playbooks for a major character like Lear or Othello. (GOSH! Me too!)

Have any of your characters ever shocked you and gone off on their own adventure leaving you scratching your head??? If so how did you cope with that!?
A: Oh, all the time. Writing wouldn’t be much fun if that didn’t happen!

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips?
A: I do a lot of research, in books, on the internet, and on trips. Usually many months.

Fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?
A: Not sure I understand the question. You mean, like Tony Blair? (Good example!!)
Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?
A: I try hard to stick to the facts, but of course I have my own interpretation of the emotions and motivations that lie behind them. I distrust most “official versions.”

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?
A: No. Yes. (Pardon??)

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?
A: I love them all. (So do your readers)

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?
A: I love almost anything that is well-written and interesting. Exceptions are fantasy novels set in worlds where “anything goes” and self-published poetry. (...and I thought you were going to say Diana's Facebook Statuses. Disappointed face!)
What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?
A: A nice pot of tea (with some custard creams). (OK OK! I know I forgot to send you any custard creams last year. My bad. Sorry!!)

I hope this makes up for my oversight!

Last but not least... favourite author?
A: Too many to pick out one, Diana. Ya oughta know better than that! (It is easier for us. We just say Marius Gabriel!!)

A little about Marius
Author's page and books  - click on the link to follow him!!

Marius Gabriel
 

Whilst looking through Marius's biography I found one of his books I had never read before!! The Original Sin. How have I missed that???

© Diana Milne January 2017 © Marius Gabriel January 2017

Diana Talks to Charlotte Betts

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Charlotte Betts in the lift at HNS16 - the Historical Novel Society conference that was held this year at Oxford. Charlotte was one of the people who were making everything run smoothly and enabling us to enjoy the conference, but she was kind enough to answer a few questions.

Charlotte is one of those enviable people who always looks immaculate and I could only admire how she always looked as beautifully presented however harried she must have been feeling.

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Charlotte Betts discovered a passion for writing after her five children had grown up and left her in peace. Demanding careers in hotel design and property force her to be inventive in finding time to write but she has achieved seven novels in eight years. One of her short stories was published in Scribble and others short-listed by Writers’ News and Real Writers’. She has won first prize in five short story competitions and wrote a regular column on interior design for The Maidenhead Advertiser for two years. She is a member of WordWatchers http://www.wordwatchers.net/ and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Charlotte, I am sure that you are tired of being asked the usual questions that would be interviewers ask authors, so hopefully this interview is an interview with a difference and I have come up with some unusual questions!

If your latest book The House in Quill Court https://goo.gl/Lw4Ure was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?

I had to think hard about this. I’d like Carey Mulligan or Lily James to play Venetia, though both have brown eyes instead of blue-green. The heroine’s spirit and personality is more important here than the colour of her eyes. Perhaps the actress could wear coloured contact lenses? Aidan Turner doesn’t have blue eyes either but would in all other respects be perfect as Jack, the hero. I’m sure you ladies will agree with me on this!
(Note by Diana: Does 'anyone' ever look at Aidan Turner's eyes???? :-) )

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?

I’d like to write a really dark psychological thriller. Alternatively, a series of detective novels about a quirky detective who lives somewhere exotic. I don’t have any particular plots in mind because, if I did, I’d become so involved with it I’d have to write the story. I don’t need any distractions at present from producing one historical novel each year!

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??

I always have a bone china mug of tea at my side – I hate thick mugs! I prefer to write somewhere quiet, though I’ve learned to tune out of background noise, such as in a coffee shop or on a train. I rarely listen to music as it’s too distracting, though I have been known to put Sounds of the Sea on my i-pod to drown out conversation. My most important ritual is to daydream, usually when walking the dog or at the point of falling asleep. That’s when my plot gets sorted.

What is the worse book you have ever read? What made it unreadable for you?

I couldn’t possibly comment! I would hate another author to quote one of my books as being the worst book they’d ever read so I’m not going there.

What makes a book unreadable for me it to find it full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Even if you tell a terrific story this sloppiness shows a lack of courtesy to the reader. It’s not hard to find professional editors who will correct these mistakes. Then there is waffle. I want a story written in clear, beautiful language that makes me look at life differently and teaches me something new. I dislike apathetic characters and improbable plots. I could go on …

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?

I used to have my own interior design business, which was my dream job. I loved (almost) every minute of it. It’s necessary for my wellbeing to be creative in one way or another. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to write full time now and this satisfies that requirement for creativity.

Coffee or tea? Red or white?

I need tea, builders’ tea, on an hourly basis for the creative Muse to sit on my shoulder egging me on. I enjoy a glass of white wine sitting in a sunny garden and a glass of red by a fireside but, if I was forced to make a choice between tea and wine, then tea would win.

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?

Any font that is clear and unfussy. I want people to read my story not admire the font.

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?

The diary of someone who lived in whichever period I’m currently writing about. It could be written by a servant or a queen because both would contribute their own view of society at that time. A queen’s maid might give an insight into the lives of both.

Original sources are incredibly valuable to the author. Samuel Pepys’s diary was my bedside companion for years when I wrote three novels set in the seventeenth century.

Historical fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?

It is sometimes annoying when a real historical person won’t conveniently die to suit my plot but it’s up to me as the writer to create a story that fits the facts. The manuscript I’m currently working on has part of the plot revolving around Caroline of Brunswick. Her life events meant I had to make my fictional part of the story cover a much longer period than I’d have liked.  

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?

I always adhere to the facts. When I’ve chosen a particular point in time as the setting for my story I research the events carefully and write these out as the ‘skeleton’ of my story. Then I weave the story I want to tell through this, bending the fiction to fit the fact and never the other way around.

It’s important to me that my readers can be confident I’m not ‘messing’ with history. When I read historical fiction I like to learn about history and would be disappointed if I discovered the story wasn’t correct. Of course, facts can be subjective. For example, in the case of a battle, the story is often written from the victor’s point of view. A German soldier might have written a very different account of a WWII battle than that of a British soldier.

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?

I spend a year or more thinking about and writing a novel and to make it real to me I daydream a great deal. Since I always identify with my heroine, after a while I feel as if I’m living a parallel existence. Sometimes I have to stop and think where I am! It’s as if I have a tiny television screen in my mind and I watch the story in all its detail but if something isn’t working I roll back the film and rewrite it. Daydreaming is a valuable and powerful tool for an author.

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?

Always! If I don’t hate my villain and love my heroine it’s unlikely my reader will feel strongly about them.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

Whilst I read historical fiction I also like mysteries and psychological thrillers such as those by Nicci French. I’m a sucker for recipe books as I love to cook. I re-read books I’ve had for years: Mary Stewart, Dick Francis, Robert Goddard and Jean Plaidy. I also get a buzz from whatever research book I’m reading. If I didn’t, I doubt I’d write historical fiction.

What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?

I should probably say a glass of negus or ratafia but the answer has to be, whatever the reader enjoys most. For me, of course, it would be a ginormous cup of strong tea. No sugar, please.

Last but not least... favourite historical author?

There are too many to mention but I shall begin with Tracy Chevalier, Philippa Gregory, Anya Seton, Elizabeth Chadwick, Judith Lennox, Diana Gabaldon …

Diana, thank you for inviting me to be interviewed for The Review. I’ve enjoyed answering your thought-provoking questions.

Website
Twitter

Charlotte's latest book, The House in Twill Court, is available in both Kindle and paperback editions and has had some exceptional reviews

Amazon UK
Amazon.com

© Diana Milne July 2016 © (Charlotte Betts August 2016)

Anna reviews: Permanent Spring Showers by Scott D Southard

The author of this book has kindly offered a ebooks to each of four lucky readers. To be in with a chance to win, just leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.

The draw will be announced on 16th December

On the morning of Rebecca’s departure to an important conference, her husband surprises her – putting it mildly – by admitting to having been unfaithful with one of Rebecca’s students. She is hurt. She is angry. She is not at all her normal rational self. Enter Vince, and life as Rebecca knows it will never be quite the same again.

   We have all, I suppose, experienced “human solar systems”. You know, groups of people who orbit round a self-evident pivot, a person in whose light they all want to bask. This person is generally one of the “it” people. Popular, charming, quite often handsome as well, this is the person all those circling hangers-on want to emulate – in one way or the other.

   Vince has IT. In spades. He has bright blue eyes and hair he has dyed black to make him look more like a certain Mr Darcy. To further the resemblance, Vince also speaks with a British accent despite being from Boston, and by now he has almost managed to convince himself he is British, having created an entire backstory that has him enrolling in the London School of Arts before ending up in Vermont. An extremely talented artist, Vince is also a charismatic individual, attracting quite the following of both men and women who find him totally irresistible. Vince is the star at the centre of the Vince universe, and all his little satellites whirl around him, eager for his light, his affection.

   Marty wants to look like Vince. Jenn is impressed by Vince. Steve gladly hangs out with Vince. Viv is in love with Vince, and Ralph loves Vince. Our magnet guy is mainly in love with his art – and himself – but is not above using his physical appeal to further his artistic career. Which is why he sleeps regularly with Ralph, who sort of bankrolls Vince’s existence.

   Ralph is a closet homosexual, living in constant fear that his conservative parents will revoke the generous trust funds he lives off should they find out his little secret. Enter Lilly, Ralph’s athletic wife who charms the pants off Ralph’s parents and has a tendresse for a lady called Stacy.

   And then there is Steve, presently trying to survive the breakup with Anna. We have Jenn, an up and coming writer who sees Vince as her muse, and Steve as her experiment. There are the oddly disparate twins Mary and Marty – Mary’s entire life is a dream in pink, while poor Marty plods along in an existence best described as grey, no matter how much he tries to look like dashing Vince. It doesn’t exactly help that Marty’s girlfriend, Viv, has the hots for Vince.

Rebecca knows nothing about Vince or his little group of human satellites when she ends up in bed with him at that so important conference. All she knows is that she is hurting, and here is a handsome young man who speaks Jane Austen English and woos her with poetic language, and a single-minded attention that makes her feel as if she’s the only woman on the planet. And she has no idea that this one night of passion indirectly sets in motion a creative surge that will lead to two artistic masterpieces, several crushed lives, an immense conflagration, and a new beginning.

While Vince sets out to seduce her, he did not expect to fall so hard for this woman ten years his senior – and even less did he expect her to be the one to break things off. Rejection is not something Vince is used to, and the resulting emotions cause him to create a work of art that has one single purpose: to bring Rebecca back to him.

Well, dear readers, there you have it: the stage is set, and Permanent Spring Showers goes on to deliver quite the emotional roller-coaster as all these relationships overlap, gnaw at each other and collide. Permanent Spring Showers is not only about human relationships, it is also about art – and the cost it comes with. Frustrated, ambitious Jenn wants to create an entire new literary genre, and in her dedicated approach to her goal, she is happy to walk all over her friends, invading their privacy, manipulating their reactions, and high-fiving herself when things go just how she has planned them – despite the emotional cost to the people involved. Jenn is a taker – she sucks her friends dry without even noticing it. Or maybe she does, but if so she doesn’t care. Jenn is all about her opus.

Vince, on the other hand, is at times as narcissistic, as single-minded – but he does care for people, and he is more than aware of his capacity to break people’s hearts right, left and centre, so he issues explicit warnings to those who drool all over him. Ultimately, he will use them – but he blows his horn before he runs them over, and he is deeply insulted when Rebecca calls him a “leech”. Vince, you see, is on a mission to elevate the humdrum lives of all the people around him by creating magnificent art, pictures that will speak to the soul and release the goodness within. Such a mission does not go hand in hand with being called a leech…

   The story is told through multiple POVs – ten at my last counting. Each of these POVs has been gifted with a distinctive voice – in itself an achievement – and to further complicate things, Mr Southard leaps between third person and first person, between snippets from Jenn’s WIP novel, to Jenn’s entries in her diary (always, rather entertainingly, addressed to one of Jenn’s literary heroes). He manages all this with impressive elegance, dragging the reader along through a story as multi-layered as an onion.

What I really liked was how Mr Southard approaches his characters. They are presented as they are, and the reader is allowed to like them or dislike them as they please – the author does not predispose us towards one or the other, he merely depicts.

As the book progresses, many of the protagonists grow on you. Ralph, for example, quickly expands from a caricatured rich boy to a tormented soul, a man who lives locked up in himself and is quickly reaching breaking point. Steve is for the most part sane, Jenn is mostly crazy, and Bob, Rebecca’s husband, just doesn’t have a clue – not even when he spends hours staring at Vince’s magnificent mural which depicts his naked wife in the throes of passion. A clear case of seeing what one wants to see, so to say…

   And as to Vince, this somewhat flawed but so talented man is saved by his introspection. Vince knows what he is, what drives him and what he wants to achieve. He is ashamed of how he treats some of the people around him, but does not perceive he has a choice. For Vince, life is all about art. Even when things literarily go up in flames around him, Vince does not see the destruction – he sees the opportunity for even greater art. Ironically, he has no idea that he may have created more than he counted on – and no, I will not clarify further.

Mr Southard has written a complicated, twisting story and the fact that he succeeds in bringing it all together is testament to his significant writing skills. All those POVs do now and then result in POV slippages, but all in all, Mr Southard has his various creations under tight control – and what an impressive array of characters he presents us with! Add to this fast-paced dialogue, excellent description and a gift for peppering his text with humoristic observations of the day-to-day, and you have a novel that is at times challenging but always rewarding. Very rewarding.  

Permanent Spring Showers can be found on Amazon.

About the author

UNIVERSAL BUY LINK:  http://getbook.at/PSS

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Scott D. Southard is the author of A Jane Austen Daydream, My Problem With Doors, Megan, and other works of literary fiction. His eclectic writing has also found its way into radio, as Scott was the creator of the radio comedy series The Dante Experience. He received his Master's in writing from the University of Southern California. Scott can be found on the internet via his writing blog “The Musings & Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard" (sdsouthard.com) where he writes on topics ranging from writing, art, books, TV, writing, parenting, life, movies, and writing. He even shares original fiction on the site. Scott is also the fiction book reviewer for WKAR's daily radio show Current State. 

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Anna Belfrage is the author of the acclaimed The Graham Saga. Set in the 17th century, this is the story of Matthew Graham and his time-travelling wife, Alex Lind. The first book in her next series, The King’s Greatest Enemy, was published on November 1, and is set in the England of the 1320s. Anna can be found on amazon, twitter, facebook and on her website.